GMF JAZZ LONDON '17

Georgia Mancio's Hang

Conscia Jazz Festival

Ant Law Quintet

Sam Braysher

The Big Chris Barber Band

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A completely packed Wigmore Hall saw the final event of Christian McBride's tenure as Jazz Artist in Residence at the hall, for which his guest was soprano / opera star Renee Fleming. They were due to be joined by Julian Joseph, but he was indisposed, and his place was taken by a classical pianist Bretton Brown and Gabriel Latchin, whose association with with McBride seems to be building into a wonderful story. He was flawless tonight (see this previous chapter of what is becoming a fairytale).

The programme was entertaining, wide-ranging, never dull. One distinct oddity was an unusual vehicle (designer not named) on which the bodywork of Rogers and Hart's My Funny Valentine is placed over the undercarriage from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which also involved the two pianists swapping the driving-seat twice tonight.

A highlight was Fleming's glorious, sensitive, quiet unfolding of the sinuous melody of Ellington's Prelude to a Kiss, morphing briefly at the end into Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade.

McBride's deep groves and monster sound, produced without any amplification was inspiring. Pictures kindly sent in by well-disposed, well-placed, sharp-eyed audience members - thanks! The whole-audience standing ovation at the end had a justifiable inevitability about it.

I feel cross-over and bridge-between programmes like this stand and fall with the chosen material - A delicate affair it seems, since the knife edge especially between Jazz and classical vocal interpretation can hardly be sharper in any musical duality. But McBride & Fleming nailed the setlist. The rest was a walk in a Winter Wonderland, thanks to the level of their artistry.